The Arkansaw traveler., 1887-07-09
"OFF WITH HIS HEAD"
Pall Mall Gazette.


 During our wanderings in the city of Canton our ears were assailed with the Cathay synonym of the Egyptian bakseesh cry, till the caverns of our brains resounded and echoed with it. "Cumshdsc.! cunashG,o!" yelled imma- ture possessors of pigtails, and mature possessors echoed the sound wherever we went. When the youngsters re- quests were not complied with, they after little invariably changed their cry to "Fanquaf! fanquds!" foreign devil, foreign deviD. We marched into the magisterial yamun to the &C., compartment of the cunashac tune. Here we were shown the instruments whereby bamboo ch0a1 chotc is given to the nadal callosities of the wicked, also ratans and short bludgeons for skipping the faces of the untruthful witnesses; thumb-screws and racks for exacting confessions (no criminal can be executed according to the laws of China until he has confessed his crlme), cdaQuts, a species of collar which for largeness and uncomfort- ableness even outstrip the mashers', and which are rectangular planes of wood with neck and hand holes. The gloomy, small depository-room of these torture implements we thought to be fair representation of what a European medieval chamber of 'tjus- tice" has been.
 We were next taken in our sedan chairs through an overcrowded busy part of the city to the execution ground, passing on our way the new Roman Catholic cathedral, whose gi- gantic spires pierce the clouds. The execution ground we found to be a small inclosed rectangular space, about fifteen yards by fifty, entered by gate. On the right on entering ran a row of small squalid houses, the habi- tations of potters, whose rough, un- baked work lay all about on the ground, drying in the sun, but we were informed that it was cleared away whenever an execution was about to take place. Facing the pot ters' houses was high. wall, at whose base and leaning against it were some large crooks, all of which had their mouths earthed over except one Here our guide introduced us to three poorly dressed Chinamen. whom we noticed gambling at fan tdn table near the gate on our arrival. One, a big, brutish- looking fellow with a villainous cast in one of his eyes, was the head eXcutioner, and the other two, who were smallish men, were his assistants. Through our guide we told the head executioner that we wished to see the instruments of his calling, and thereon he produced short, very heavy two- handed sword and long knife. The following con- versation was carried on between us and this ''boss'' through the medium of our guide:
 "How do you use this sword? Where is the block?"
 "We don't use block. What we do is to make the prisoners kneel down in two rows, facing one another, and bending their heads down. Then 1 take the sword, and chop, chop, one on each side, and the heads fall off: so on, till they're all done, as you'd switch the tops off green weeds with your walking stick"
 But you don't always chop head off with one blow?"
 Always"
 "What is the knife for?"
 "For the ling che, or death by many cuts. We tie the culprit who is condemned to this death to that cross there (pointing to two rough un- parked sticks roughly crossed), and we begin by cutting of the eyelids, ears, nose and so on, ending by stick ing the knife into the heart. The cuts vary ill number from eight to 120, according to the heinousness of the culprit's crimes" RG1 kW
 What class of criminals are con- demned to the ling che?" "Parricides, matricides and women who have killed and mutilated their husbands form the majority"
 Do the executions interfere with your appetite and sleep?"
 The three executioners grinned sar- donically at this question, so we asked:
 ''How many persons have you exe- cuted in a day?" II have chopped twenty heads off myself in two min utes. See that dark-looking place on the ground over there-that's caused by the blood of the last batch we had
 What is done with the bodies?" "The friends take the bodies away, but we keep the heads in the crooks over by the wall there, and when we have large number which are no longer recognizable we bury them"
 A teacher was endeavoring to find out the proficiency of her little friends in rnnnfal a,.;thr,no4sn nrl 4.al-